Behind the Garden Gate

Monday, November 24, 2014

Is your manuscript ready to submit?

Is it technically clean? Grammar? Punctuation?
Formatted properly? Have you followed submission guidelines for the agent or
editor you are submitting to? Yes? Then what else will your manuscript need?

It
needs to be brilliant. It must stand out from the crowd. Your ghost story may
be a little Ghost and Mrs. Muir mixed
with Ghost--not a bad concept at all.
If so, you have two good examples of concepts to blend. Make certain you
fulfill the expectations of the reader.

Taking
your writing from beyond good to great. Several books recommend methods to help
you understand the difference and ways to evaluate your own work. There are also
a couple of blogs I think may be helpful. During a recent weekend workshop on
writing, one point struck me as solid genius, and the idea stuck. Think about
the best books you’ve ever read. Out of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, how
many are memorable? Why? What was it about the subject or characters or plot which
made that particular book stand out from the rest? Does your book contain those
same elements?

Consider
the number of manuscripts agents, editors, and publishers see versus the number
of books actually published. How do professionals decide whether to publish one
well written, technically perfect vampire novel over another? Or one gut
wrenching romance over another? One mystery with compelling twists and
turns…instead of another? The answer for a first time author may be in evaluating
the first published books by bestselling authors in the genre you write. Once
the author’s first book has been contracted, do we ever see that same attention
to detail in follow up books? We should. And often we do. But compare your book
to the first best seller by Stephen King or one of your favorite authors. A
good example might be Harry Potter. The manuscripts were turned down over and
over again by many traditional publishers. The first book in the series had to
be strong enough, well written enough, unique enough to take a chance with,
because buying a young adult fantasy series was a stretch at the time. What did
happen, was that the stories had universal appeal. They were well written, the
characters were fully developed with the potential to expand as the series did.
The plot had a villain worthy of the title and a cast of characters we cared about
and wanted to know.

Compare
it to Hunger Games. The audience is a little older but the adventure contains
the same unique elements. And the first book is strong enough to hold on to
fans for the second book, etc. What about Outlander by Diana Gabaldon? Adult
content, a historical - time travel - romance. Don’t tell the men who read this
series as historical fiction that it is also a romance. Don’t tell anyone grounded
in reality about the time travel aspect. Yet even while crossing genres, this
series worked. The answer to the question of what makes a best seller--besides
selling books--is doing it well—better than the rest.

It’s
no longer enough to write a technically perfect novel. To stand out from the
rest, the manuscript must rise above all those well written stories. Your story
must be robust, your manuscript a masterpiece. Each chapter should demonstrate
genius. Tighten the CONCEPT. Clarify the HOOK. Tweak your PREMISE. Each scene must
address GOAL, MOTIVATION, and CONFLICT. Then review each of these points and
see if you can elevate your novel to the next level, and then the next. Good
luck. I’m looking forward to seeing it soon.

Another
trick to writing your novel is learning about screenwriting. The first course I
took featured Sid Field’s concepts. Those of you using Scrivner for writing may
be familiar with the screenwriting program Final Draft. I’ve left a couple of
links here for you that may be helpful in plot development.

That
being said, a word of caution: Good dialogue generates information in your story,
but it shouldn’t replace narrative completely, especially deep point of view.
Deep point of view (the characters’ gut feelings and thoughts) is what makes a
reader feel or care about the characters and invest emotion in the story.
Investment drives commitment. Commitment drives memories. Memories make books
remarkable. Remarkable books make best sellers.